


Assigned Seats

by crna_macka



Category: The 100 (TV)
Genre: Alternate Universe - Modern Setting, F/F, Pre-Slash
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2015-12-31
Updated: 2015-12-31
Packaged: 2018-05-10 18:58:26
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 487
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/5597080
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/crna_macka/pseuds/crna_macka
Summary: <blockquote class="userstuff">
              <p>It isn’t that Raven is territorial, just that she likes her routines.</p>
            </blockquote>





	Assigned Seats

**Author's Note:**

  * For [evandre](https://archiveofourown.org/users/evandre/gifts).



> Written for the tumblr prompt "Abby's gone back to college and is the oldest student in Raven's class."

Raven noticed her immediately at the start of the course: an older woman, small and thin and always neatly dressed, sitting in the second row to the back, near the door. _Raven’s_ seat, whenever she has a class in this room. The first day isn’t a big deal. Formalities, that’s all. People will drop or figure out the professor and adjust accordingly. It’s a three-hour class; some people even move seats during the break. The woman does not, and Raven is okay with that.  
  
She simply arrives early to the next class. Fifteen minutes ought to do, Raven figures. Easy enough. The room is always open.  
  
But the woman is there. Same spot. Raven’s annoyance rises to a mild degree, but she silently drops her bag and jacket at the spot that is looking like her secondary chair here and leaves to wander the halls for ten minutes until the room fills a little more.  
  
It isn’t that Raven is territorial, just that she likes her routines. She’s been around long enough to know what works for her.  
  
The fourth session, Raven arrives at her usual time, but somehow that is before the woman does. The class starts and the woman still isn’t there. It’s not that Raven was in _competition_ with the woman, but the feeling of victory fades quickly when it becomes apparent that she only got her seat back because the woman won’t be here at all.  
  
Incidentally, Raven also beats her to the fifth session. The woman arrives fifteen minutes late with barely a nod from the professor. She takes the empty chair next to Raven.  
  
Raven spends the next hour and fifteen minutes watching her peripheral vision for any sign that the woman might want the seat back or say something about it at all. Instead, she notices the woman’s hands and wrists as she takes sparse notes, the practical but strangely incongruous sneakers below bootcut jeans, the fine lines on her face when she smiles. It’s impossible to guess her age.  
  
The break comes late this class. Raven finds herself opening her mouth instead of stretching her legs.  
  
“Did you need any notes from last class?”  
  
The woman has brown eyes and a quirky smile, cheekbones that look even better at this angle than in profile, and Raven is struck by the simultaneous realizations of _I’m in trouble_ and _I don’t care._  
  
“No, I’m just auditing, actually,” the woman says. “Thank you, though.”  
  
“You want your seat back, then?” Raven offers, just to keep conversation going.  
  
The woman’s glance is clearly assessing, as though she might actually be aware of what a departure this is for Raven, or maybe some stray, eager note in the girl’s voice tipped her off, and the smile widens just a little bit more.  
  
“Not today,” the woman says. It’s a subtle enough invitation to stay.  
  
Starting with the sixth session, they keep it that way.


End file.
